I need to purchase or put together a system for running FEA simulations ASAP. This is in an academic environment so cost is an issue. The software I plan to run doesn’t scale well beyond 4 cores and the scaling really drops off after 2 cores per simulation though I could run multiple simulations. The performance of the software pretty much scales with CPU and memory speed/bandwidth.

One thought that I had was build something that would accept an NVidia Tesla GPU as the software is just starting to support it. I think though most of my models will be to small to really take advantage of it.

I have come up with four system configurations and would like some advice on which one to pick, two I would assemble myself and two are pre-built by dell, and advice on component selection.

I already have two Dell UltraSharp U2414M 24" Monitors (1920 x 1200) connected to another computer one using DVI and one using Display Port. I want to use these monitors in conjunction with the new system so the video card will need to have at least one DVI and one Display Port outputs.

The Dell would probably be the fastest solving computer since that is a Sandy Bridge-E CPU and it has 4 memory channels, where the rest only have 2.

Since you seem willing to build your own and have concerns with the Dell, why not build your own computer using the i7-3820, which is the i7 twin to the XEON E5-1620? You could also go with a hexa-core SB-E like the i7-3930K.

I believe Display port, DVI, and HDMI can all be adapted to each other, I'm guessing your monitors have DVI inputs so you could use a wide variety of video cards.

The Tesla Cards are very expensive and their applications are limited, they can only accelerate certain parts of the solving process, and the code must be written specifically for them. What Software are you using?